Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.

Introductory to India

The Tiger

By William Blake (1757–1827)

TIGER! Tiger! burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burned the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,

Could twist the sinews of thine heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer, what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And watered heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did He, who made the Lamb, make thee?

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright,

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?